Angelica Aragon

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In examining a woman's affair with her husband's brother, the Argentine import La Mujer de Mi Hermano makes the illicit out to be as passionate and sinful as a visit to the dentist. Lack of sexiness aside, the movie has an impersonal bedside manner, as if it's afraid to provoke any fiery feelings. That's not good. A movie featuring extramarital lust, jealousy, and domestic secrets should not make married audience members feel their lives are more volatile by comparison.

The marriage of Ignacio (Christian Meier) and Zoe (the stunning Bárbara Mori) is on the rocks even before she takes up with Ignacio's younger brother, Gonzalo (Manolo Cardona), a scruffy, laid-back painter who is the complete opposite of his corporate, uptight sibling. On top of Ignacio and Zoe's baby problems -- they can't conceive and she refuses to adopt--the passion has all but left their 10-year-old marriage. Ignacio insists on having sex only on Saturday, and their house has all the warmth of a Sharper Image catalogue. Gonzalo, with his rumpled attire and lean build, is a tempting alternative. Zoe goes to him first as a confidante, then as a lover, which forces the three principals to reexamine their relationships with each other.

Normally, I'd say any movie that features Woody Allen as a homocidal maniac is okay in my book, if only Picking Up the Pieces didn't bore you to tears en route to the funny stuff, which consists solely of Allen's spare one-liners. The plot, involving a New Mexico community that rallies around Allen's dead wife's severed hand thanks to its miracle-granting powers, shows a ton of promise, but never delivers. Note to Alfonso Arau: more boobs.

Whether appearing on the front page of the morning paper or being the butt of a Late Night joke, Catholic priests just can't seem to catch a break. These days, knocking the Church is in vogue -- and director Carlos Carrera isn't about to let this opportunity pass him by. Carrera's latest film, El Crimen Del Padre Amaro, so brazenly criticizes the priesthood that it had bishops all over Mexico calling for a boycott. Instead, the film took in more at the box office than any other movie in the country's history.

Now showing to U.S. audiences, Padre Amaro tells the tale of a newly ordained priest who falls from grace with a little help from a rural Mexican community. The handsome Padre, played by Gael García Bernal of Amores Perros and Y Tu Mamá También, begins his stay in Los Reyes as the sort of kind spirit who gives his money to an old man after being robbed on a bus. By the end, though, he's no better -- and perhaps quite a bit worse -- than the corrupt elders who surround him.

Bearing subtle but uncanny structural similarities to American mob movies like "The Godfather" and "Goodfellas," Mexico's highest grossing homegrown film of all time is a substantive parable about an honorable young priest corrupted by desire, temptation, ego and ethical turpitude within the Catholic Church.

"El crimen del Padre Amaro" stars sharply handsome Gael García Bernal (ubiquitous of late in the Mexican imports "Amores Perros" and "Y Tu Mamá También") as Father Amaro, an eager, newly ordained, 24-year-old priest whose ideals are tested and found wanting when he's assigned to a small-town parish run by an canon-transgressing elder clergyman.

Father Benito (Sancho Gracia) may be dedicated to his congregation, but he's also in bed figuratively with local drug cartels -- their donations are funding construction of a new church-run hospital -- and literally with a local widow (Angélica Aragón). Coincidentally, it is this woman's eye-catchingly angelic, devout but extremely sensual teenage daughter Amelia (Ana Claudia Talancón) who is the initial catalyst for Father Amaro's downfall.